I get where you’re coming from and it would be interesting to see the responses – but for me it is impossible to order this set in a cogent way. If I’ve leaned anything about DACs, it’s all about integration.
This seems to hold true today as much as ever. I recently tried the budget sweetheart du jour (Project Pre Box S2 Digital) for a couple of weeks, which seems to tick most of the fancy boxes spec-wise, but turned out to be a bland and anaemic performer in my use case. I’ve replaced it with a Meridian Prime, which is nothing special spec-wise, but boy – does it sound good.
I guess my answer would be in the right implementation of most of the above. 